Let's try this strumming technique over a bass and drum
backing track.

Below
is a jam track in the key of A major, which means you can play several
A major chords (e.g. A major, A7, Amaj7 etc.). Chords are covered in a
different section, so if you haven't been through the basic chord
lessons yet, I recommened just using A7, using that
rhythm from above...

The great thing about playing these types of patterns is that you
naturally start to focus on your strumming attack,
which is to do with how hard you hit the strings and also to do with
muting (which we'll look at in a later lesson).

The idea is to get rid
of the constant drone and inject life into your strumming rhythms and
chord playing.

So
remember, all down strums,
but you're targeting
the low and high
strings in a specific beat. Think of it like how a drummer would hit
the bass drum followed by the snare (treble) drum to create a beat.
When the example above gets going, it has a very punchy, kinetic energy
because
of the attack of the down strums.

Let's now look at a more complex way of using this technique. First,
let's get the basic strumming rhythm nailed:

In the example audio/video above you should be
able to hear/see the separation of
the bass, mid and treble strings in the open
G major chord.

We start
with a down strum on
the bass notes of the chord (low E,
A
strings), followed by a down strum in the mid section of
the chord (A,
D
and
G strings), and 3 strokes of the treble section (G,
B
and high
e strings). The mid and treble strings may overlap, but
that's not really an issue.

The key thing is to get some kind of defined separation between these
chord
tones from low to high (bass to treble). What this does is two things:

1.
Layer
your chord playing, making it more nuanced and textured (if, of course,
you're bothered about those things! Not so important in punk rock, for
example).

2.
Give
your rhythm more energy. Just like
a
drummer would use the bass and snare drum in certain positions to
create a beat, so too can a guitarist position the bass and treble
accordingly.

In the later
lessons in this series, we'll
expand on this strumming technique and see how it complements different
types of rhythm (especially funk inspired rhythms).

Try using
the above technique over the backing track below. This time, we're
going to change between G major and a variation of the open C major
chord (Cadd9 to be exact).

Open
G major

Open
Cadd9

Listen to the example below to get your bearings first. As the jam
track is a set speed (one that would be realistic for a song), you
should start slow with a metronome
first and gradually build up your speed.

I want you
to experiment
with the guitar strumming techniques we've learned here and apply them
to your
own music. Keep an open mind, but also remember the foundation elements
that help keep your timing and attack sharp.